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Old 11-29-2015, 02:25 AM   #17
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
On the subject of canal lifts, there have been all sorts of ingenious and impressive means developed to move boats from one level to another where locks were not possible or practical. One of my favorites, partly because we've been on it, is the inclined plane at Montech, France. It was built parallel to an original set of four (IIRC) conventional locks with the idea that it would speed the movement of traffic. Unfortunately it didn't, but it remains a unique feature on the canals of France.

It consists of a pair of connected diesel-hydraulic locomotives running on rubber tires along a sloping concrete aquaduct. In practice, a boat enters the bottom of the aqueduct between the two locomotives, coming to a stop just before it grounds out on the sloping concrete bottom. The huge blade mounted in front of the locomotives is lowered behind the boat and the locomotives start up the slope. The blade pushes the boat and the water it's floating in (there are rubber seals around the sides and bottom of the blade) up to the top of the inclined plane until the water trapped in front of the blade is at the same depth as the canal water being held back at the top. When the levels are equal a door is opened and the boat moves out onto the canal. For boats going down the process is reversed.

The Montech lift is not used much these days as it's been proven to be faster to use the original locks but it still operates for tours and special occasions or requests. In the last photo the locomotives are backing down the slope with with a boat and the water it's floating in.

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